Replacing grass with artificial or synthetic turf provides several advantages, such as greatly reducing the need for lawn maintenance and eliminating the use of water for lawn irrigation. Synthetic turf is fabricated with an upward-facing synthetic grass face formed by tufts of grass (and, optionally, additional thatch tufts) and a downward-facing backing or understructure that supports the synthetic tufts of the grass face. It is usually provided by the manufacturer in roll form in sizes suitable for shipping and for retail store display. The turf roll is fabricated with a predetermined lateral width, such as a 10 or 12 feet width between the turf lateral sides, and with a longer longitudinal length, such as 100 to 300 feet in length. At the time of purchase, the required length of synthetic turf is dispensed off the roll of turf and cut to the proper length needed to meet the requirement of the particular turf installation area. If the area to be covered with turf has a width less than the predetermined width, a single width of turf is laid on the ground in the turf installation area. Then the sides are trimmed to fit the adjacent hard structures, which may be in the form of a sidewalk, lawn edging, roadway, planter border, etc.
Often, however, when installing synthetic turf there is a need to use multiple pieces of turf, because the predetermined turf lateral width provided by the manufacturer is too narrow to cover the width of the turf installation area. For example, if two turf pieces are necessary to meet the width requirement, they may be laid with the center or inner lateral straight edges of both turf pieces adjacent one another to begin to form a seam. To create the seam, the inner edges of each piece of turf are turned back a few inches, such as 15 to 30 inches. This results in the turf understructure being turned upward with the grass face of the turned back area laid back on the adjacent flat grass face area. The edges of the overlapped piece are trimmed to remove any scrim, generally following fiber lines on the backing or understructure of the turf and attempting to maintain the gauge of the fibers. (For instance, if the synthetic turf is manufactured with a ¾-inch gauge, an attempt is made to maintain the ¾ inch spacing at the edge of the overlaps.)
After trimming, the newly cut inner straight edges of synthetic turf are abutted by pulling and sliding the two turf pieces until the cut edges are together. The edges are turned back again to allow seam cloth or tape to be placed on the ground under the two cut edges. Adhesive is applied to the seam tape. The newly cut abutting inner edges of both turf pieces are flipped back flat with the turf understructure downward for adhering to the adhesive and with the inner edges of the two turf pieces touching each other. This creates a typical straight seam between the inner lateral edges of the synthetic turf. Then the outer lateral edges of both turf pieces are trimmed to fit the outlining hard structures.
However, this standard method of seam formation often creates a problem. At times this straight seam does not lay flat, but may, conversely, create a ridge or “Mohawk” effect, which cannot be pressed down or obliterated. This is particularly likely to happen with the newer synthetic turf that has a thicker, more realistic artificial grass face and incorporates an artificial thatch layer between the straight grass fibers, such as turf having a 50-ounce face weight or greater. A ridged seam will not improve over time, but will continue to have an upward thrust at the abutting edges, which will not be satisfactory to the homeowner or business owner who is having the synthetic turf installed.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device that will smoothly integrate the central or inner lateral edges of two sections of synthetic turf to form an imperceptible seam and prevent the formation of a ridged seam.